It’s not everyone who gets to create the first permanent theater west of the Mississippi River, make out like a bandit on Lafayette Square residential acreage, and keep Missouri in the Union as the Civil War loomed. But Sol Smith did.
A recent essay in this space featured Adelina Patti, opera diva of the late 1800s. As a child phenomenon on nationwide tour at the age of 12, she played dolls with the granddaughter of Sol Smith. He owned the St. Louis Theatre, where she performed. Over the years, many stage luminaries visited with “Old Sol,” who was known as the father of St. Louis theater.